4 Ways to Use Twitter for Customer Service and Support

4 Ways to Use Twitter for Customer Service and Support

By Leon Widrich

Do you have customers?

Are they on Twitter?

Are you using this amazing tool to support your customers?

Keep reading to discover four ways to provide amazing customer service with Twitter.

Why Twitter for customer support?

 ”I genuinely believe that any business can create a competitive advantage through giving outstanding customer care.” ~ Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)

This is one of the best quotes I have heard. It must give any business a lot of comfort. Even if you have a million complaints, you can still lead with better customer service.

When my business recently had to weather a severe storm, we decided to default everything to simply being there for our users and customers. It was an incredible experience.

And what better way is there to give your best customer service than through Twitter?

Twitter has changed continually over the past few months, as the service becomes more and more mainstream.

The results we’ve seen from using Twitter as our most important support channel day in and day out are incredible.

Here are the 4 most powerful insights on using Twitter for customer servicethat I’ve learned along the way.

#1: Use the Speed of Twitter to Your Advantage

This is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot. “On Twitter, you need to be fast in responding!” But just how important really is speed in responding on Twitter? Here’s an example.

This is the effect which speed in customer service can have.

To take advantage of this, I make it a rule to keep response times under 5 minutes for our customers. This makes an immense difference. No matter what problems come up, nothing trumps being there for people, exactly when they ask for it.

It’s a rule so simple that it is often easy to overlook. We were fortunate enough to have people publish articles on this, purely because we were so fast in responding. That’s why I can’t stress enough the advantage it gives you if you don’t let more than 5 minutes pass before you respond.

#2: Personalize the Experience on Twitter as Much as You Can

Another very important yet easily overlooked part of giving support on Twitter is personalizing the experience. This means you aren’t speaking to your customers behind a corporate logo.

Instead, make every effort to replicate a face-to-face interaction. This gives the absolute best results, in my experience. Here are three of the most important things you can easily do:

§  Personalize your Twitter bio.

Provide your personal Twitter handles in your company's Twitter bio.

Put your name and the names of everyone who could possibly tweet on your business account. It builds a lot of trust. Your customers, if they have very urgent questions, can also turn to your personal accounts instead.

§  End tweets with names.
It has long been recommended to end tweets with your initials—”lw” in my case. I always felt this didn’t make a lot of sense. Instead, end your tweets with your actual first name. It will give your customers a much better chance to connect with you, especially if you also have the names of the other people tweeting in your Twitter bio.

End Tweets with your first name, so you can connect on a more personal level.

§  Use your face as an avatar instead of a logo. 
A third tip that can help you personalize the experience is to use a picture of your face, instead of your logo, for your profile picture. Two great examples are Dino and Dan from Triberrand Pete Cashmore from Mashable:

Test putting your own face as an avatar for your company's Twitter profile pic.

It’s one simple step that can immediately make you more approachable and human.

Some people have told me in the past that they can’t replace their logo for various reasons. No problem at all. There is still something you can do.

For the most pressing questions from your customers, switch from responding with your business Twitter account to responding with your personal account. This way you can provide a personal exchange with the branding effect of your logo remaining intact.

Again, Dino Dogan from Triberr is doing a terrific job and earns a lot of kind words for doing exactly that.

In special cases, just jump in and reply from your personal Twitter handle.

#3: Use Direct Messages on Twitter to Your Advantage

One of the keys to great support is to help the most people you can in the shortest amount of time. If you have a very widespread problem, with a ton of incoming tweets in a short amount of time, using DMs can be a lifesaver.

Here is a quick 3-step guide to help you cope:

§  Send one public tweet explaining the situation. Anyone who finds your Twitter profile will see that tweet first.

§  Then, reply to any @mentions with a DM. First, you won’t clutter your business’s Twitter stream with @replies for other customers looking for what is going on. Second, you can go into more detail explaining how you can help each customer.

§  Switch back to sending @replies if there is no acute problem anymore, but only regular questions and support requests.

I have to admit that I got the above wrong for a long time. I would send lots and lots of @replies in a short space of time. The problem was that all of the customers who were looking for what was actually going on had to scroll down many times to find the public tweet that I sent first.

DMs are also extremely useful when a simple @reply doesn’t give all of the information the customer needs.

In these cases, try DMs instead of the regular “please send an email toname@company.com,” which tends to prolong the time it takes to solve the problem.

You can send 2 or 3 DMs in a row if this allows you to answer your customer’s problem right away.

Use DM's wisely and make people aware you have sent one.

#4: Give Great Customer Service to People Who Aren’t Your Customers (yet)

This is quite a new concept that I learned from the great Gary Vaynerchuk and Rand Fishkin.

Did you know you can provide amazing customer support via Twitter to people who aren’t actually your customers yet?

Helping people who have problems or questions of all sorts about your niche, but not directly your product, can be an amazing way to generate new leads.

Let me walk you through this.

When I first got started with Buffer, there wasn’t any traffic directed toward our site, but we realized there were still a lot of people asking questions about the space we were in.

Lots of great questions were floating through the Twitterverse unanswered, such as “How can I schedule tweets?”, “What is a great tool to clean out my Twitter followers?” and “What is the best social media tool to manage my stream?”

I would jump in and answer questions without even hinting at our own tool—simply being helpful and pointing people in the right direction.

You can do exactly the same thing. Whatever service you are offering, there will be a great number of people asking questions related to your field. When you just help them out, many people naturally check out what you are building and become loyal customers.

Here are 3 great tools to set up search terms so you can find those future customers’ questions:

§  TweetDeck or HootSuite columns. You can easily set up search terms with the most relevant wordscontained in questions you want to answer for people. Here is one that I used:

Setup search terms to follow relevant searches for your brand.

§  InboxQ: Another great way to find and answer questions from anyone is InboxQ. It works as a neat Chrome browser extension. You can save searches and receive notifications whenever there are new questions you can answer:

InboxQ is a great Chrome browser extension to keep track of people asking questions.

§  Twitter Search: Although Twitter’s search tool isn’t perfect, it has some terrific customization options—especially “advanced search,” which will allow you to pin down exactly what you are looking for:

Don't forget good old Twitter search to find great questions you can answer.

By nature, I believe that Twitter is simply a terrific place to give great customer support, but it hasn’t been fully embraced for this role by many companies yet.

I hope some of the ideas above will help you make your customers love you a lot more.

What do you think? Can you improve support for your business with some of the above tips? What else are you doing that I might have missed here? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Leon Widrich

Leo Widrich is the co-founder of BufferApp.com, a smarter way to publish your tweets and other social media posts. He writes more social media tips on the Buffer blog. Be sure to connect with him @leowid anytime. Other posts by Leon Widrich »

14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin About Getting What You Want In Life

14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin About Getting What You Want In Life

Dumb Little Man is a "tips for life" blog

Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. Franklin was responsible for establishing the first public library, organizing fire fighters in Philadelphia, was one of the early supporters of mutual insurance and crossed the Atlantic eight times. Self-development was a constant endeavor throughout his incredible life.

Benjamin Franklin was clearly a man who knew how to get things done.

Here are 14 action-inducing lessons from him: 

o    Less Talk, More Action 

“Well done is better than well said.”
Talk is cheap. Talking about a project won't get it completed. We all know people who constantly talk about the things they are going to do but rarely ever take that first step. Eventually people begin to question their credibility. Taking action and seeing the task through to completion is the only way to get the job done.

o    Don’t Procrastinate 

“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
This is probably one of the first quotes I remember hearing as a teenager. With an impressive list of achievements to his credit, Benjamin Franklin was not a man hung up on procrastination. He was a man with clear measurable goals who worked hard to turn his vision into reality. What are you putting off till tomorrow that could make a difference in your life today?

o    Be Prepared 

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
You need a plan to accomplish your goals. Charging in without giving any thought to the end result and how to achieve it, is a sure way to fall flat on your face. Think like a boy scout. Have a realistic plan of attack and a systematic approach for getting where you need to be.

o    Don’t Fight Change 

“When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
Whilst many of us don’t like change, others thrive on it. Either way change is inevitable. The stronger we fight against it, the more time and energy it consumes. Give up the fight. Focus on proactively making positive changes, instead of having change merely thrust upon you. Wherever possible, try to view change as a positive instead of a negative.

o    Get Moving 

“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
There’s a reason we use the expression, movers and shakers. Movers are the ones who take action, the people who get things done, while the immovable are sitting around scratching their heads wondering how others could possibly be so successful. Which group do you want to belong to?

o    Avoid Busywork 

“Never confuse motion with action.”
We are always running around doing things. We rush from one meeting or event to the next, sometimes without achieving a great deal. At the end of the day, how much of our busywork are we proud of? How much of that running around improves anyone’s life (including ours) for the better? Make your motion mean something.

o    Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes 

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
If we fear making mistakes, we become scared to try new things. Fear leaves us nestled in our comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone rarely leads to greatness. Taking risks and giving yourself permission to make mistakes, will ultimately lead you to whatever your version of success may be.

o    Act Quickly on Opportunities 

“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
Opportunities are everywhere. The trick is being quick enough and smart enough to seize them when they arise. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that something won’t work or can’t be done, allow yourself the freedom to ask what if?

o    Continue to Grow 

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
We all have vices of some description. The key is to keep them under control or preferably eradicate them entirely. Be kind to those around you, whether they are neighbors, family, co-workers or friends. Never accept that you have finished growing as a person.

o    Keep Going 

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Have you ever looked at a successful entrepreneur or business person and thought how lucky they are? Most of the time, luck has nothing to do with it. Hard work and sacrifice on the other hand have everything to do with it. Successful people deal with failure. They tackle their demons head on. They pick themselves up and keep going.

o    Know Yourself 

“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
Understanding ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we just don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s much easier to hold onto a romanticized version of ourselves or to simply view ourselves through other people’s eyes. Start by being brutally honest with yourself. Follow through with understanding, compassion and acceptance.

o    Don’t Self-Sabotage 

“Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
We spend so much time worrying about other people hurting us, yet fail to comprehend the damage we inflict on ourselves. If you are using negative self-talk, lying to yourself or indulging in addictive behavior you are self-sabotaging. Life can dish up enough challenges without us adding to the mix. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself like you would a best friend.

o    Don’t Give Up 

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Achieving our goals can be downright exhausting. There will be days when you want to give up. There will be times when your energy levels flatline and you wonder why you bother getting out of bed. Yet you push forward, day after day because you believe in yourself and you have the determination and strength to back up that belief.

o    Wise Up 

“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
Benjamin was definitely onto something with this one. Who hasn’t had the thought - I wish I could know then, what I know now? Unfortunately there is no time machine; there is no going back. The key is to wise up as early as you can to start forging a life of purpose, achievement and happiness.

Thea Easterby is a freelance writer. Her blog www.writechangegrow.com offers inspiring tips on writing, career change and personal development.

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DumbLittleMan/~3/DWbgFnI_6wc/14-action-inducing-lessons-from.html#ixzz1tbXMLQqk

IBM Study: If You Don't Have a Social CEO, You're Going to be Less Competitive

The list of the world’s CEOs regularly includes celebrities, billionaires, big egos, risk takers, and failures. What it does not include are social media experts; but that’s about to change. When IBM(NYSE: IBM) conducted its study of 1709 CEOs around the world, they found only 16% of them participating in social media. But their analysis shows that the percentage will likely grow to 57% within 5 years.

Why? because CEOs are beginning to recognize that using email and the phone to get the message out isn’t sufficient anymore.

The big takeaway: That using social technologies to engage with customers, suppliers and employees will enable the organization to be more adaptive and agile.

 “As CEOs ratchet up the level of openness within their organizations, they are developing collaborative environments where employees are
encouraged to speak up, exercise personal initiative, connect with fellow
collaborators, and innovate,” the IBM study concluded.

Simply put, CEOs and their executives set the cultural tone for an organization. Through participation, they implicitly promote the use of social technologies.  That will make their organizations more competitive and better able to adapt to sudden market changes.

Other key findings of the study include:

·         The study reveals that CEOs are changing the nature of work by adding a powerful dose of openness, transparency and employee empowerment to the command-and-control ethos that has characterized the modern corporation for more than a century.

·         Companies that outperform their peers are 30 percent more likely to identify openness – often characterized by a greater use of social media as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation – as a key influence on their organization.

·         While social media is the least utilized of all customer interaction methods today, it stands to become the number two organizational engagement method within the next five years, a close second to face-to-face interactions.

·         More than half of CEOs (53 percent) are planning to use technology to facilitate greater partnering and collaboration with outside organizations, while 52 percent are shifting their attention to promoting great internal collaboration.

·         Championing collaborative innovation is not something CEOs are delegating to their HR leaders. According to the study findings, the business executives are interested in leading by example.

·         CEOs regard interpersonal skills of collaboration (75 percent), communication (67 percent), creativity (61 percent) and flexibility (61 percent) as key drivers of employee success to operate in a more complex, interconnected environment.

·         The trend toward greater collaboration extends beyond the corporation to external partnering relationships. Partnering is now at an all-time high. In 2008, slightly more than half of the CEOs IBM interviewed planned to partner extensively. Now, more than two-thirds intend to do so.

·         CEOs are most focused on gaining insights into their customers. Seventy-three percent of CEOs are making significant investments in their organizations’ ability to draw meaningful customer insights from available data.

I’ve often held IBM as the best example of a Social Business and a company to emulate rather than Apple. I believe this study and the analysis behind it, reinforces that view.

The IBM study shows that CEOs and the companies they manage must constantly evolve to stay competitive. Partners, suppliers, employees and customers want CEOs to communicate with them on a personal level to build trust and to help align them to the organization’s strategy. There is a lot at stake here. And if CEOs continue to hide in their Ivory Towers under the guise of some old command and control mentality, the next chapter in their career might be written somewhere else.

No one wants that.

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/05/22/ibm-study-if-you-dont-have-a-social-ceo-youre-going-to-be-less-competitive/